Showing solidarity with terrorists, the Palestinian Authority has charged Israel with “attacking our people” by targeting five Gaza Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees terrorists who were preparing to fire missiles on southern Israel over the weekend.

The PRC was also involved with the 2006 attack on a western Negev checkpoint at a Gaza crossing in which terrorists kidnapped IDF soldier Gilat Shalit. Shalit is thought to be alive, but his fate and condition are not known.

Although the de facto Hamas government in Gaza is sworn to the destruction of Israel while the Palestinian Authority ostensibly refutes terror and is pledged to halt incitement, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki condemned the strike on the terrorists as an “attack against our people.”

Speaking on the Voice of Palestine radio station, he said that Israeli counterterrorist maneuvers are intended to show Israel’s ability to operate in Judea and Samaria as well as Gaza.

Al-Maliki, who is part of the Fatah movement that was ousted from Gaza by Hamas nearly four years ago, stated that the Palestinian Authority will ask the United Nations Security Council to condemn the Israeli strike on the rocket-launching terrorists. He added that the request will be accompanied by a demand to condemn Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.

The PA foreign minister also emphasized its diplomatic attempts to circumvent previous commitments to negotiate with Israel on establishing the PA as a new Arab state within Israel’s current borders.

“Palestinian efforts are currently focusing on rallying recognition of their state from the largest number possible of states across the globe, in preparation for seeking recognition from the United Nations,” he said. A handful of South American countries already have officially recognized the PA, and Al-Maliki said that the Palestinian Authority will turn to African and Asian states for similar recognition.